1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to network communication and, more particularly, to group interactions on a communication network.
2. Description of Related Art
Telephone and computer technology provide a wide array of services for users of telephone networks and computer networks. Indeed, computers routinely provide a capability of transmitting voice over telephone networks, and once-relatively-simple cellular telephones may function as sophisticated network computing devices in their own right. Users are comfortable intercommunicating in chat rooms normally provided by computer network services, and text messaging, once associated more with email and computers than with other communication media, now accounts for a significant percentage of traffic on cellular telephone networks.
Telephone conferencing is common in business environments as a low-cost alternative to face-to-face conversations that may require relatively costly travel with its attendant inconvenience and delay. A user or business wishing to set up a telephone conference may arrange with a communication provider, such as a telephone company, to establish a conference at a specified time. Users then may be notified, e.g., by letter, telephone, email or the like, of the conference and may be given a special phone number (either toll-free or not) to call at the time of the conference. The users further may be given an additional code number to be entered before being allowed to enter the conference.
Chat rooms, normally associated with computer networks, typically are established by commercial enterprises such as newspapers, sports associations, professional groups and the like to provide group members and customers an opportunity to share views by exchanging text messages. As such, typical chat rooms have a generally public character, and their structure is fixed and static once a chat room is established. Chat room users may be required to register or in some other manner become accepted in order to participate in chat room activity.
Text messaging, which may employ services such as Short Message Service (SMS), provides simple, convenient, silent messaging between cellular telephones. Multimedia Message Service (MMS) extends capabilities of SMS to include transmission of graphic information. Generally, SMS and MMS are oriented to point-to-point communication.